LA MIRADA – It wasn’t just the lack of air conditioning that made the play inside the La Mirada High School gym sizzling Wednesday afternoon.

Girls volleyball rivals La Mirada and Mayfair squared off with sole possession of the Suburban League lead at stake.

And despite opening with a loss, the Monsoons (9-8 overall, 4-0 in league) came away with a 16-25, 25-3, 25-15, 18-25, 15-8 win that kept them a half of a game ahead of undefeated Cerritos (13-6-2, 3-0).

The loss drops La Mirada (6-3, 3-1) to third place.

“This is the way they’ve been playing all year, unfortunately,” La Mirada coach Linda Reich said. “One minute they look good and then they look so flat.”

The Matadores entered Game 5 after an emotional Game 4 win. Yet, the momentum did not carry over as La Mirada quickly trailed 5-1 before Reich called her first timeout.

The Matadores did rally for three points off kills from Jessica Weins, Brittney McKean and Christina Madrigal. But with a chance to tie at 5, La Mirada instead committed a service error.

The mistake helped fuel a Monsoons 5-1 run for an 11-5 lead.

La Mirada chipped away and pulled within 12-8 on a Melanie Rangel kill off a Cecilia Cisneros dig attempt.

After a Mayfair timeout, the Monsoons closed out Game 5 with three consecutive points from Danielle Briscoe (two kills and one block), the final coming on a spike that Rangel dug out of bounds.

“We played La Mirada about two weeks ago in our tournament and they killed us,” Mayfair coach Margaret Bos said. “We went to work for the last two weeks and stuck to our game plan of eliminating their big hitters, (Miranda Doing) and (Rangel).”

The Monsoons took that task literally in Game 2, beginning with an 8-1 advantage that ballooned into a 15-2 lead and an eventual 25-3 win.

All three of La Mirada’s points came via Mayfair errors.

“To be perfectly honest, we didn’t do anything different or special in Game 2,” Bos said. “I just think that La Mirada struggled with their ball control.”

The Matadores’ Game 2 debacle came on the heels of an impressive 25-16 Game 1 win in which Doing (seven digs and three blocks) connected on nine of her team-high 16 kills.

La Mirada fell behind, 11-10, before outscoring Mayfair 15-5.

“I wish I knew what happened in Game 2,” Reich said. “If I would have known, I would have tried to fix it.”

Mayfair was down, 11-10, in Game 3 before finishing on a 15-4 run behind Cisneros’ four kills and one block.

La Mirada countered in Game 4 by jumping out to an 8-4 lead that grew as large as nine points at 18-9, thanks to a Chelsea Skogen kill off an Amy Franzman stuff attempt.

Game 4 ended with back-to-back Mayfair hitting errors.

“We’re not done, it’s early in our season,” Reich said. “We’ve got Cerritos next Wednesday on the road and we’re going to get ready for that game.”

Rangel had seven kills and 17 digs and McKean 25 assists and eight digs Skogen also had 13 digs.

Cisneros paced Mayfair with an amazing effort that included 16 kills, 15 digs, five blocks and four aces.

Briscoe had 11 kills and six aces and Sarah McFadden a match-high 32 assists.